Battle For Macragge
by Krivoklatsko
Summary: Merlin finds a magical board game so, naturally, Sora, Riku, and Kairi decide that they should hop in and play it. Things take a turn for the worse, and the campaign finds itself going off the deep end into the grim darkness of the far future.
1. Chapter 1

"I don't understand."

Merlin sighed at what was quickly becoming Sora's catch-phrase.

"It's an enchanted game, lad, Similar to an enchanted book."

"But it's not a book."

Yuffie facepalmed, and Leon stepped forward. "It's _like_ an enchanted book."

Sora considered that and scratched his head nervously.

"So... if I hop into it... it would be like hopping into the Hundred Acre Wood?"

Merlin stroked the considerable length of his beard while he sputtered about details that flew through Sora's head without stopping. Sora lifted the lid off of the rectangular box they were discussing, not paying much attention to the content of the picture it boasted as its cover, and stared glumly at a very un-magical set of playing instruments. One by one he set them out on Merlin's table, which had been cleared for the sole purpose of tinkering with the newest discovery of the Radiant Gardens Restoration Committee. Every set of eyes in the room- Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie, Cid, Riku, Kairi, and even Leon were in attendance- watched with swiftly deflating awe as Sora began to remove the contents: A rule book, another rule book, a third rule book that was shorter than the first two, several blue figurines of blue-armored soldiers, several red figurines of red aliens, some dice, two rulers, oddly shaped pieces of plastic that resembled wreckage, and a single, human figurine with a large, metal briefcase. The figurine had a pistol in the other hand, a blue uniform like the soldiers, and a nasty look on his face. Sora set him down and jumped back when he saw the result.

Just as the last figure touched the surface, a shimmering line had made its way around the edge of the table. There was certainly magic afoot.

"Well?" Merlin gestured Sora forward.

"What?"

"Jump on in, lad! It should be just like the Hundred Acre Wood."

Sora grinned at everyone sheepishly and waved for Kairi and Riku to join him.

"Alrighty then. Come on guys!"

They hopped into the table and were replaced by figurines of themselves, posed for battle like the soldiers and the aliens. Everyone nodded, impressed, except for Cid, who had stuck his nose in the instruction book.

"'The hell is this?"

Everyone turned his way quizzically, so he read aloud from what he had found on the first page.

"It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth..."

* * *

Sora, Riku, and Kairi hadn't expected quite so much dust. They were furiously rubbing it out of their eyes and coughing hoarsely as it coated their throats. This was nothing like the Hundred Acre Wood. All around them was the feeling of impending doom, of a great battle without end. And yet there was nothing but dust and wind. When it cleared, and they had finished composing themselves and blinked their eyes clear, there was silence.

"Where," Kairi mumbled. "Where is everyone? Where is... anyone?"

Sora and Riku shrugged their responses. As far as they could see were plains of white sand, like talc. They felt truly alone among the stars.

* * *

Cid had finished reading the introduction to Warhammer 40k: Battle for Maccragge, much to the horror of everyone else.

"Maybe," Aerith mumbled, "we should just get them back out and keep this on the shelf. It doesn't sound like a very fun game to be playing."

Merlin nodded his agreement and raised both of his hands into the air. With a wave, a swish, and a twirl, he sent a spell to the board. Nothing happened.

"Hmm."

He tried it again.

"It appears that they can't leave until they finish the game."

The force of everyone's eyes caused him to retreat a step. "And, well... er... I can't do anything about that."

Merlin startled as he realized that Yuffie had invaded his personal space rather suddenly.

"What do you mean, 'they can't leave until they finish the game?'"

He fumbled with his wand nervously and mumbled, "well, we just have to play the game until it's done, and then they're free."

Her eyes narrowed, but Cid drew everyone's attention when he picked up a book that identified itself as the campaign codex and flipped to the first page. "Looks like there's a story to it. It's not very long, either."

Yuffie stamped her foot. "I don't care! They could be in danger! Do something Merlin!"

Merlin mumbled something about research and began digging through his bookshelf while Leon peered over cid's shoulder.

"Well?"

Cid's cigar dodged words while he announced his summary of the first page. "To begin, we need two players, terrain for the field, and this guy." He pointed to the briefcase-man.

Aerith stepped forward, to opposite sides of the table, and Leon approached the other side. "how about us?"

Aerith nodded to Cid. "We can do it."

"So the game begins with the aliens, Tyranids, shooting down a spacecraft carrying the gene-seed of a chapter of Space Marines. Don't ask me what that is."

He set three pieces of wreckage on the field.

"The pilot survives."

He set the figurine with the briefcase next to one.

"The Tyranids land on the planet."

He set the rest of the terrain down at random and added a blob-like figure next to each one.

"The pilot is trying to save the gene-seed by taking it to the safety zone."

He peeked around the board. "Where's the safety zone?"

A golden square illuminated on Leon's side of the table, which was opposite the pilot and Aerith.

"Oh. Well there we go."

Yuffie gasped. "Hey, look! They're moving!"

She was right. The figurines of Sora, Riku, and Kairi started a shuffle across the board toward the briefcase-man and his piece of wreckage.

* * *

Riku glanced at Kairi quizzically. She was just as confused, and turned to Sora, who was making sure the horizon didn't move. The trio continued to look around sheepishly. It had been several minutes now, and their surroundings showed no signs of changing, not horizontally anyway. No one thought of looking up, at least until the sky started falling. First came a chunk, then a piece, then an entire ship cartwheeling end-over-end and trailing fire as it plunged from the heavens, marking the opening of what could only be a terrible and bloody day. It struck the ground with the force of an angered god that loved nothing but death, and added several explosions as an afterthought while its own weight dragged it along the ground, grinding a crater into the earth about a kilometer away from them.

The trio was stunned, or thought they were until a hatch burst off of the amazingly still intact cabin and a man came out. He leveled a weapon at them before they could blink.

"Identify yourselves, in the name of the Holy Emperor!"

Riku mustered his senses the fastest and called out across the considerable distance between them, "We're servants of the Emperor."

Kairi nodded at the clever response while Sora turned to his friend and mumbled, "what?"

"Then get over here! Quickly now."

They traded glances, shrugged, and, not wanting to offend their new friend, obliged him. The man turned back into his ship to grab something, and then emerged with it, a large metal briefcase.

When they had come close enough, they realized he was a giant, and his weapon was a fittingly large handgun. It found a new target before they could speak. The man had turned, aimed, and fired impossibly fast for his size. His gun barked like a rabid tank and something in the distance exploded. The trio froze in shock.

"I see the Xenos swine have already arrived." His voice rumbled like lightning from the mountain of his throat. He was huge, fast, and carrying the biggest handcannon they'd ever seen. In fact, up till now, they'd only ever seen actual guns on T.V.

Kairi took a step to her side and back a bit, making a shield out of the others while they watched him.

"What..." Sora mumbled. The man focused his attention downward at the keybearer. "Yes?"

"What... wow. You're huge."

The pilot nodded. "I am a Son of the Emperor, from the esteemed Ultramarines Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, assigned to the evacuation of our chapter's holy gene-seed. The Great Devourer found us and... well..." he gestured at the piece of wreckage he had emerged from, and then at the three other large pieces scattered about. His gaze lingered on a sphere hovering near one of them, and he took aim at it slowly.

"Do you see that?"

Kairi squinted hard with the others and asked, "what is it?"

It hovered above the ground at the height of an average person, moving randomly and reaching out with tendrils to feel its surroundings, seemingly oblivious to them.

"Pay attention." He squeezed the trigger, throwing a slug across the plains and causing the hovering sphere to detonate wildly. The bloated gasses in its flesh expanded several meters in every direction before burning out. They didn't have to 'pay attention' to notice the effect.

"That's what happens if it so much as senses a pin dropping. Don't let one get close."

Sora jabbed his finger at another piece of wreckage in the distance, and Riku and Kairi gaped in horror as three more spheres emerged from a bulbous organic _thing_ in the ground.

"Usually I would wait for my brothers to arrive, but, well..." He trailed off and set down his briefcase so he could push a button in his ear.

"Brother-Captain Octavian, the gene-seed is intact, but my auspex is non-functioning. Requesting orders."

He waited for only a moment before the bead in his ear replied, "we are launching a flair Brother-Pilot. Move to our location."

The group's heart sank through misery when they saw a bright streak appear on the horizon, with three pieces of wreckage to climb over and at least seven more spheres between them.

* * *

"As the humans, Aerith gets to move first. Every individual unit gets to move and shoot in a turn. The pilot..." Cid's cigar nearly dropped from his mouth, but clung to several teeth for dear life. Merlin read over his shoulder and added his amazement for agreement.

"Oh! How interesting! Spit it out."

"The pilot may move twelve inches per turn, and shoot twelve inches along the table per turn with his bolter pistol. Sora, Riku, and Kairi have no ranged weapons, and can therefore only move. To make up for this, they are given a bonus in hand to hand combat. How'd it know they're playing?"

Yuffie shrugged as if the question were directed at her, and then pointed a gun-finger at Aerith.

"Your move."

Aerith picked up her measuring tape, somehow projecting spite at Leon with the motion, and scooted the four of her figures straight across the field. "Catch us if you can, Devourer."

Leon sneered back. "Your worlds _will _fall, human."

Everyone balked at the exchange.

* * *

"Follow me closely if you want to live."

Their new companion took off at a dead sprint straight for the hovering alien spheres. Their reluctance was a given, but he had the gun.

* * *

"And Leon..." Cid followed Leon's dead set glare to Aerith's. "You... eh... get to move now. But it says here that spores move randomly. So instead of choosing which way they go, you roll the 'directional die'..." Leon did without breaking his stare. The six sided die came to a stop with an arrow on its top pointing table-west, straight at Aerith and her party.

"Eh... and then to determine the distance it moves in that direction you roll a... 2d6? One sec'."

He rummaged through the books like they were boxes of information before finally mumbling, "two, six sided-" He stopped when he realized that Leon had already rolled two six sided die and moved his pieces accordingly. He was currently holding a small, plastic circle over a spore, which had touched Sora. "The blast covers your whole party, human. Where is your God-Emperor now?"

Aerith bared her teeth like a battle hardened commander and growled, "he watches over all of his servants." She rolled four dice, all sixes, and added, "faithfully."

Cid's cigar was a fighter, but it fell this time. "Y'all know how to play?"

They didn't answer.

Yuffie waved a hand in front of Leon's face to no response. "What's goin' on?"

Cid flipped through his manuals again while Aerith took her next turn.

"The four dice she rolled were for a save, and she got sixes. So even though her pieces were in the explosion, they survived."

Yuffie glared at Cid. "I don't care about the game! What's going on with Aerith and Leon?"

Merlin pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and stroked his beard. "They can't leave the game until they're finished."

"WHAT?!"

"And there's nothing I can-"

Yuffie drew back a fist.

* * *

Riku, Kairi, and Sora quickly had their doubts confirmed when the nearest sphere turned in on them. Sora had almost stopped in time to dodge the tentacles that let the spore feel. Almost had cost him two fingers. Looking for them with heat-scorched eyes was hopeless, so he cradled the wound in shell-shock, waiting for his hearing to return while their pilot companion was putting a hand over Kairi's mouth to stop her screaming. The spores could hear apparently. One turned their way, chasing the disturbance it had felt, and detonated harmlessly when it sensed the Pilot's bullet rupturing its hide.

Kairi was hoisted to her feet, and they quickly mustered and set off on another sprint, following out of shell-shock rather than any amount of faith. They made it clear of the rubble without incident, and only then did they feel their wounds. When her shock had died down, Kairi turned on their giant friend. Most of her hair had burned away, leaving several minor burns.

"You nearly killed us! We should be dead!"

"The Emperor protects." The Space Marine pilot didn't seem too worried. Of course, he was the least hurt of the group. His superior genetics were proven before their eyes.

Kairi kicked him in the shin as punishment, which hurt her toe. He didn't seem to notice it. "Why did you run straight at it? That was so stupid!"

His posture gave nothing away, but he answered in a clear voice, "Spores move randomly. There was a higher chance of it moving any other direction than toward us."

"You're crazy!"

* * *

Merlin cradled his nose and Cid got caught up on the next scenario while the terrain rearranged itself magically. Meanwhile, Aerith and Leon traded snide insults about emperors and pedigree that made all of zero sense. Cid read a summary aloud as soon as he was done.

"'Kay. In the second scenario, Squad Octavian is nearby." He pointed at the blue-armored soldiers, who scooted into position on Leon's side of the table.

"However, they are separated from the others by more spores."

He pointed out spore colonies that littered the battlefield.

"And there is a time limit for the humans. After fifteen turns, the Hormogaunts arrive."

Leon grinned obnoxiously and gnashed his teeth at Aerith, who remained stoic.

"For the humans to win, Sora, Riku, Kairi, the Pilot, Brother-captain Octavian, and his flamer must survive, and all Tyranids have to be killed."

Aerith reached for her measuring tape.

* * *

Kairi's eyes adjusted to the 'biscope,' binoculars really, that the giant with the case had offered her, and she spotted several blue figures in the far distance. The other Space Marines were coming their way with all due haste, a comforting thought.

"My brothers," the giant rumbled. "Come. We're almost to safety."

"My..." Everyone stopped and turned to Sora. He was staring at the mangled remains of the knuckles that were missing from his hand.

"My fingers-"

"The Emperor shall remember your sacrifice. Be thankful that he has deemed you worthy to continue the fight against his enemies."

Sora nodded, not breaking his horrified stare, and his friends lifted him up to his feet. Following a gesture from the pilot, they took off for their second suicidal slalom. Explosions began to rock as their help, Squad Octavian, executed the spores and spore colonies in their path. Occasionally a roar could be heard, like a tiger in high grass. Smoke would billow and curling, crackling flesh would shriek just afterward. Squad Octavian had brought a toy. Riku almost lost his focus when he took an interest to the spewed death of the flamethrower upon one of the fleshy growths that was spawning their oppressors. Squad Octavian would get them out of this. He was sure of it.

* * *

"So few turns left, human. So very few."

Aerith didn't appear worried. She was quick to voice her belief in the God-Emperor's everlasting vigil over the faithful, and the strength of the "Adeptus Astartes."

Even Cid was having trouble keeping up with their new jargon, despite his constant flipping through the reference material that came with the game.

Leon was right though. And that worried everyone. So far, Aerith had done an okay job of steering the main characters clear of the Tyranid spores while keeping Octavian busy with the three spore colonies on the map, but there were only five turns left until the Hormagaunts arrived, and then there would be a significantly harder fight. They looked infinitely deadlier than the shambling spheres that had been present so far.

Aerith indicated the flamer of Squad Octavian and held a plastic reticle over his head, pointing it at the last of the spore colonies. It reached by just a centimeter, and a sneer came to her face as she said,

* * *

"I hope you like bacon, Xenos scum!"

Hell spewed from the nozzle of the flamer and purged the last of the ungodly menace from the ground. Brother-Captain Octavian raised the Firehawk pilot on his vox-caster as the cackling napalm drew quiet enough. "Is the Gene-seed still intact?"

Riku and Kairi- who were jogging on their way to the safety Octavian would provide- gave their companion a glum look. "We're fine, really. Don't worry about us."

Sora turned to Kairi, still cradling his missing finger. "Come on, Kairi. It's important to them. Right?"

The pilot nodded and patted the metal case in his hand. "More than you know. Its capture is the fall of this world, and perhaps the whole sector."

He pushed a bead in his ear. "Affirmative, Octavian."

The groups united quickly, and the keybearers realized that the pilot they thought was huge was, in fact, a dwarf among his brothers. The armor of the soldiers before them was fit for gods, and their weapons- bolter pistols engraved with blessings and Aquilas- were large enough to kill if they were just set in the wrong place. The armor they bore covered every inch of their bodies in metals that would intimidate lowly Orichalcum, and their helmets were marked by the red, electronic lenses of the god-killers.

The keybearer's awe soon turned back to worry when one of the Astartes took a knee and watched a rectangular screen he held in his hands.

"Contact on the auspex, two clicks east. Moving fast."

His voice was augmented mechanically, but everyone paid more attention to the shrieks emanating from a cloud of dust on the horizon.

The only marine without a helmet was the captain, and Sora felt a surge of awe that Riku and Kairi didn't when the man bellowed, "More of the ungodly seek our genes! Form a box!"

The marines were quick to comply, and the trio soon found themselves and the pilot encased in nine armored bodies. Nothing could possibly get through that box. Nothing. Not even the fast moving, shrieking dust storm that was coming from the east. It couldn't. It simply wouldn't be possible. The trio backed into each other tighter for support anyway. The atmosphere told them to not take any chances.

* * *

"There's a difference between chasing victory and running to the slaughter, Nirn-Queen."

Aerith's jabs were coming more frequently, but something kept Leon calm, like only an ace up the sleeve could.

"Numbers, Lord Militant. Numbers always prevail."

Yuffie had tried everything by now to free her friends from their trance-like competition, while Cid had consigned himself to learning the rules as quickly as possible. Merlin only stroked his beard.

"Will they be alright?"

Cloud spoke for the first time, proving that he wasn't just a shadow on the wall. Yuffie considered what he said and looked to Cid. Cid looked to Merlin. Merlin stroked his beard and answered, "What kind of person would make a game that hurts people?"

Cloud's eyes lit up (more) at that and he shifted his weight off of the wall. "Who did make the game?"

Cid leaned past Aerith, who was measuring out distances, to grab the box. He flipped it over. A second cigar dropped from his mouth. Two symbols were covering the publishing trademark. One was the emblem of the heartless, and the other made his eyes go bloodshot when he saw it. He dropped the box and rubbed his eyes hard. "Ow. Yeah, let's hope Aerith wins."

* * *

The creatures had reached them fast. Dear God-Emperor, they had reached them so fast. They ran like quadrupeds down on all fours, but balanced themselves with a tail just well enough that their forelegs never had to touch the ground, which was convenient since their forelegs were replaced by massive blades. Brother-Captain Octavian and the two beside him had fired in time to kill a wall of leaping beasts, and the force of the explosive shells knocked their savaged and separated pieces backward. But that was only a hundred out of whole legions. Soon they were enveloping the horizons, and even restless pebbles on the ground were trying to make their escape. Brother-Captain Octavian's augmented voice boomed over the din nonetheless.

"By the throne, these hellspawn are fast! Where's our extraction?"

The soldier with the auspex, a device that Riku was quick enough to identify as a radar of sorts, took a peek at it between two bursts from his bolter. "80 clicks out. Twenty minutes, Brother-Captain."

He stopped firing to check again. "There's something else, sir. The reactor core of the Firehawk is still active."

The eyes of Squad Octavian settled on a piece of rubble, which they were separated from by hundreds more, running, hellspawned creatures. It was the same piece of rubble they had been running away from.

"Flamer, Cut a path!"

The keybladers had no intention of trying their luck with more battle, but the massive, metal bodies were shifting the box now in that direction.

"Ten steps, on my mark!"

Wrath from the flamer nearly drowned out the captain, but the augmented voice was made to be heard over anything. "Mark!"

Each marine took ten steps. Their formation didn't warp so much as an inch. They kept spraying, and Sora swore he heard one man singing a monotonous hymn. He was soon joined by the others, who followed the rhythm with Latin verse punctuated only by the call of "Mark!" and the perfectly timed clank of metric steps. Soon, the horde of creatures began to dwindle. And before the trio knew it, they were standing in a field of dead locusts, on top of a humming piece of wreckage.

"We made it!" Sora fell to his knees and laughed despite himself. "I need to get to a doctor. Oh my gosh, I'm so-"

One of the marines ripped a panel off of the ship and gestured to the pilot, who set down his case and peeked inside as the auspex marine yelled, "Contact. East again. Moving faster."

The pilot shimmied out and back upright. "I'm going to need time to repair this, Brother-Captain."

"We will make you time, Brother-Pilot."

Sora jumped to his feet. "Wait, wait, wait. Why don't we just leave? I need to see a doctor!"

The pilot reached into the hollow that the panel had covered and began working with his hands while he explained.

"The reactor core is unstable. If it explodes, everything within a hundred kilometers will be destroyed, including the gene-seed."

Riku nodded and noted with some alarm that the marines were forming a box again. "Wouldn't that be a good reason to get out of here?"

"It will explode in five minutes."

The marine with the auspex corrected, "four minutes, ten seconds. And the contacts are two minutes out."

The captain pointed out four spots on the ground. "Shield projectors! Now!"

* * *

Cid finished reading and began his summary while his newest cigar set to work on its word-dodging game.

"Scenario three begins with-"

"A feast upon the Emperor's bastard children. I will have those genes one way or the other."

"Your foul dealings will be stopped, and your whore-spawn punished with the wrath of the God-Emperor for ever thinking to have left the void, forsaken creature!"

Leon and Aerith were still at it. And everyone who had tried to read the second symbol on the box had regretted it. Yuffie was banging her head against the wall, fighting a migraine, Merlin had a nosebleed, and Cloud was afraid to blink because of the things he was seeing when he closed his eyes. They were rooting for Aerith.

Cid rubbed his bloodshot eyes again and continued reading. "Squad Octavian is setting up four shield projectors so that the pilot can defuse the reactor core. Every turn, Aerith starts by rolling a die. If she doesn't get a four, five, or six in five turns, they all explode and die. The Tyranids have upgraded their forces to Genestealers."

The front door burst open, showering light into what was steadily becoming a very dark room.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy stepped in.

"We came as soon as you called. What's the matter?"

Cid mumbled, "Just watch" as larger alien pieces with four arms shuffled their way onto the table from thin air.

* * *

Nothing could feasibly break the solid wall that the Space Marines formed. Of all the keybearers had seen, they knew this. No heartless could bear the sharp strength of even their reflection in the blue and perfect armor that the god-killers donned. Even the dust seemed fearful of them. Whatever creature dared to fight them would have to be stronger than myth, and faster, by far faster, than what flesh could achieve.

"Visual."

A vision of terror, to be exact. Ten of them, four armed creatures with legs that mocked a horses form mounted on a humanoid chassis, came charging across the ground, pounding, screaming in guttural and shrill tones in a cacophony designed to baffle the human senses. They moved too fast, agile enough to dodge the aim of even the Space Marines. And before anyone knew it, a fresh horde of them had arrived. The Astartes, their Bolters blazing the Emperors will, twitched in their armor as they sorted targets just fast enough to keep the creatures from reaching the shield projectors. Just fast enough, Sora thought, to stay alive. And then the moment came. A series of rapid clips and the call, "empty!"

A massive clip was handed over their heads by another marine so fast a blink would have missed it. Horror struck as the ammo ran low. But the Space Marines were not known for being short-sighted. The guns were slung to holsters just as they emptied and the roaring of engines was heard. The keybearers understood when they saw it, that they were about to be part of the fight.

"Melee!"

Everything afterward happened in the course of two seconds.

The Space Marines lifted swords that roared like chain saws, teeth sweeping down and up the blades, and raised shields that they drew from their backs, blue, like their armor. The Genestealers tore the shield projectors apart with their bare hands the way the God-Emperor moves air. Effortless. Three keyblades appeared. And then the press. The mass of the horde had pushed the Astartes back, squeezing the box formation, but only for a moment. The men pushed back hard, their strikes swift and true, sending xenos blood through the air to paint the dust red. And then time resumed its usual pace.

"Step on my mark!"

And now they were about to open the box.

"Mark!"

Everyone took a step down on the wreckage, and there were three keybearer sized gaps. Sora, Riku, and Kairi jumped in to meet their enemies head to head for the first time.

* * *

"So when two units come into contact, base to base, what happens?"

Cid flipped through an instruction manual, trying to answer Mickey's question, while Aerith and Leon rolled against each other for melee.

* * *

A Space Marine fell. His arm went first, the one that held his shield. A genestealer had grabbed it and tugged, pulling it off like cooked meat from a chicken. The marine kept swinging, beheading three beasts, flaying ten or so, and then lost a leg to another. His weight brought him down, and from there he continued to swing, but could no longer block them with his mass. Sora dropped his blade vertically, cracking a skull, and turned in time to see another beast hop over the fallen marine and sail through the air at him. He froze. Riku decapitated the thing mid flight and it deflected it with a shield spell, sending the body backward onto the waiting chainsword of the fallen marine. Gore frothed and lurched from the continuing wound and caked itself on everyone in the group, spraying Sora in the eyes and forcing the coppery scent into his nostrils and down his throat. More came. More died. He swung hard, left right, guarding Kairi, guarding himself, being saved by them in return countless times. An adrenaline high got the best of him then, and the fight continued through his red eyes until blood lust had been more than fulfilled. Sora was still swinging at phantoms conjured up by his shattered psyche when it was over. He crushed the skull of an already dead creature and trudged through its organs to the next one, raising the keyblade above his head. Kairi's hand on his shoulder stopped him. The thoughts of kill-or-be-killed left, and he simply stood there, feeling the lithe digits on his skin. He breathed and slowly kneeled to the scarlet mud where he wept. Even his tears looked like blood to him. He wanted to go home now. He was done with the game.

"It sickens me to see those beasts corrupting the very genes of the Emperor's people, twisting humanity into this trash." Captain Octavian was fine, except for his distaste of the xenos.

He kicked a small piece of what used to be a huge creature, and then gestured down the soaked wreckage to the blood that had made a moat around them. So much death, the hand of life withdrawing so very quickly; so little time. Time... Riku scrambled back to the top of the wreckage and peeked into the hole that the pilot was working in.

"How's it going?"

The pilot didn't answer, too busy clipping wires and flipping switches.

The marine with the auspex stepped up to the hole. In a tone that was unusually calm he rumbled, "Ten seconds."

* * *

Aerith turned her hand ever so slightly enough to let gravity have its way with the unsupported die. It fell, tumbling end over end and bounced off of the edge of the table. It rolled to a stop with six dots facing up. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief except Cid. "It only counts if it lands on the table."

Everyone tensed again as Aerith picked up the die. She made the sign of the aquila, mumbled a prayer of benediction, and dropped it again. It tumbled, it bounced, it rolled, it spinned, and it came to an almost dead stop at three. Almost... until it rolled onto four.

* * *

"Three.... two..."

The pilot pulled himself out of the hole and set a glowing cylinder on top of the auspex. "hold that for me, brother."

The marine with the auspex chuckled. "Well done."

Kairi, Riku, and Sora, who had huddled together already, were feeling left out and pushed around at this point. Kairi wiped some blood from her face and asked, "what's next? How do we get out of here?"

Squad Octavian rounded on her, giants observing an odd ant.

* * *

Cid balked at the obviousness of the king's question. "What's next?"

King Mikey gestured him onward. "How does it end?"

Cid flipped to the last page and realized, "that was the last scenario."

Yuffie tilted her head. "Well that's a strange way to end a game. There isn't even an epilogue?"

"Eh... it says somethin' about building larger armies and coming up with new scenarios and new armies with your friends for a... 'a never ending game play experience.'"

King Mickey took a look at the back of the box before someone could stop him. "Yowzers!" He dropped it and began rubbing his eyes vigorously. "It's corrupted by the heartless! There has to be a way to get them out!"

Merlin shrugged. "I've tried everything, your majesty."

Mickey continued rubbing his eyes while he thought. "Whelp… It seems to me that the original makers of the game were not the heartless, and were not who ever's symbol is next to that. It also seems to me that no one but the Heartless and the others would make a game that's a trap. So it's safe to assume that the heartless changed the rules. So the key here would be to change it back."

Yuffie scratched her head and mumbled, "so he just needs to find the keyhole in the game? Just like in the Hundred Acre Wood?"

Mickey paused his rubbing. "Keyhole?"

Yuffie nodded. "You said the key was to change it back."

Mickey nodded and tried looking at her. "Oh. Well it's funny how much help a slip of the tongue can be. Yes. He probably needs to find a keyhole in the game world. If he can lock it, the game would be fixed."

"So..."

They all turned to Cloud who had emerged from his own mind again. "Where in the game would the keyhole be?"

* * *

"What's next?" the Brother-Captain replied. "What's next, you ask?!"

Kairi nodded steadfastly; although she wasn't entirely brimming with confidence while she tilted her head all the way back to look up at the Space Marine's face.

"What's next is we defend the gene-seed, young mamzel. With our lives if we can."

"Until what? Don't you have a plan to take it somewhere?"

The Space Marines stared at her bluntly, all except for Brother-Captain Octavian, who took one massive step forward so that he blocked out the sun over her.

"My only plan is to defend the sacred gift of the Emperor until my brothers arrive and we cleanse Macragge of our enemies. We will accept nothing less than total victory!"

"Contact east again, sir. More Tyranids. Larger."

There were more dust clouds rising on the opposite horizon, telltale shrieking and gnashing heralding the arrival of another horde of Genestealers and Hormagaunts. But as they drew closer, more, larger shapes appeared behind them. And behind those, just far enough to seem like figments of the imagination... No. Nothing could be that big. Riku, Sora, and Kairi were slowly realizing that what they knew no longer applied in the 41st millennium. It hadn't yet dawned on them that in the grim darkness of the far future, there was no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.


	2. Chapter 2

Mickey leaned over the table for a strategic appreciation of the situation. It was grim- not that he had expected anything better. Numbers had a way of winning that countered valor and skill. And Sora, Riku, and Kairi were very low on numbers. The battle was only thirteen of them, including their Space Marine allies, against an innumerable horde that just kept coming. He rubbed his eyes, remembering the crazed sigil engraved on the back of the game box. It had stung his eyes bad when he looked at it.

"Anythin' in particular you think we should do?"

Mickey didn't answer Cid right away. He didn't have an answer. Scratching his chin delayed time though, and he used it to think fast and look smart. "Aerith and Leon aren't moving anymore?"

They weren't. Aerith, who had volunteered to play on the side of Humanity, was pushing a killer look across the table to Leon, who seemed less human the longer he played. The game had come to a pause at the end of the campaign codex's outline for battles, leaving the two strategists waiting.

"So the game has been altered by the Heartless," Mickey mused.

"And someone else," Yuffie corrected.

Everyone winced in memory of the Chaos rune covering the trademark on the box.

"And someone else," Mickey mimicked. "So no one can leave the game until it's done, and the game does not work the way it used to. And, presumably, the game is fatal."

Merlin's house was getting uncomfortably stuffy with so many people inside crammed so close together. Mickey continued scratching his chin. "So why aren't they moving anymore? How do we advance the game?"

"What?" Cloud broke his silent nature again and leaned over the opposite end of the table. "Why would we want to advance it? Someone could die."

Mickey nodded. "And if the game doesn't advance, they die, too. They aren't eating. Advancing is the only path to victory."

Merlin stepped forward into the light, which was now only coming from the table in the center of the room. All other light was dimmed to nothingness by some unseen magical force. "Which begs the question again, your majesty. How do we advance?"

Cid chewed his cigar thoughtfully and mumbled something about inserting tokens. Glancing his way in annoyance gave Mickey an idea. "Cid."

"Eh?"

"What was it the campaign book said about continuing?"

Cid glanced down at the manual he'd been rummaging through and read aloud while his cigar did a jig. "Get your friends together and choose larger, more diverse armies to compete in any struggle you can imagine. The diversity of Warhammer 40K allows for a never ending game play experience in which wars can reach apocalyptic sizes."

He slapped the book in his palm. "Why? Is that important?"

King Mickey nodded. "Does it say anything else?"

Cid looked down at the book again. "Try adding a new faction to the struggle on Macragge on either side, or even a third! But remember that armies stay balanced by points, so adding to one side means adding to another."

With a shrug, Mickey gestured at Cloud. "And that's how we advance."

* * *

"Transport almost here, sir."

Kairi tugged on Sora's shoulder, drawing his horrified gaze away from the massive Tyranids stalking the horizon. Behind him, the Space Marines were watching the opposite direction as a shuttlecraft skimmed to their rescue at full speed. The voxcaster one of the Marines was carrying came to life.

"Brother-Captain Octavian, this is _Fulcrum._ We're coming in low from the south. Check your targets."

The Squad captain, Octavian, pushed a bead in his ear to respond. He still wasn't wearing a helmet. "Acknowledged, _Fulcrum._ We're watching for you."

Sora looked back at the Tyranid horizon. More Genestealers were closing fast, along with Hormogaunts that seemed to be carrying rifles instead of scythes.

"Hey guys?"

He pointed with his keyblade, to show the Astartes. One of them nodded slightly.

"Is there a problem, juvie?" He rumbled, annoyed.

Sora shrugged. "Aren't you out of ammo?"

"The Emperor will provide," they answered in unison.

Sora nodded, defeated, and tried to judge the size of their rescue vessel. Unless it had a Dash Drive, or some amazing weapon, it wasn't going to be helpful. "Are you guys sure?"

The vox screamed to life again. "Octavian, _Fulcrum. _We're taking fire. You've got AA on your flank. Biovores and-" The message cut short with a bang and the shuttle exploded in mid air. It plummeted to the ground like a gutted rock, landing where Octavian and the Keybladers had first met. The Gods of Irony were surely high-fiving. The Captain raised his chainsword in the general direction.

"To the crash site! Before those swine catch up to us!"

Sora's groan was trampled under the sound of sprinting, metal power-armor. He caught up as fast as he could, which wasn't as fast as usual considering the superior genes of the Emperor's finest. Riku and Kairi, at his side, were even outrun by the Marine with one leg. They decided to let it go. These guys could be better than them.

"Do you guys know what a Biovore is?" Sora asked.

Riku shook his head and Kairi gasped something about eating Latin plant roots between breaths. They'd find out soon enough anyway.

* * *

"You mean another one of us has to play?"

Merlin shrugged his innocence at Yuffie. "I didn't make the rules and-"

"-and there's nothing you can do to change them." She dropped a sigh. "Fine. Who should play?"

Donald and Goofy tried to stay unnoticed in the corner of the room, meaning Donald tried to hide behind Goofy while Goofy tried to hide behind Donald. Their efforts toppled a pile of books, drawing everyone's attention. Mickey faced them squarely and drew up his height.

"Donald? Goofy?"

Donald chuckled nervously. "I'm not a very good leader, your majesty. That's why Goofy is captain of the guard."

"Sure is right!" Goofy beamed. "Uhhh, wait." The implications of the compliment suddenly caught up with him.

Cloud, still leaning over the table, caught Mickey's attention discretely and nodded suggestively toward Leon's end of the table at the Tyranid team. Mickey glared at the lack of faith, and then shifted his gaze to Goofy. "Feeling up to it?"

Goofy fumbled his hands within each other contemplatively. "Gawrsh, your majesty. Are you sure I'm the guy for the job? It seems kinda' brainy if ya' know what I mean."

"Have you ever lost a game of chess?"

Everyone in the room perked up at that- except for Goofy. Goofy scratched his chin in thought. "Well I… I beat you… I beat… uh… I beat Sora… I beat Donald-"

"_-bah, luck-"_

"I beat Ansem the Wise… uhhhhh… I beat Yensid…"

"Have you ever _lost?_" The king repeated.

Goofy thought his way to the conclusion, "nope! Oh Gawrsh. When you put it that way you make me sound smart!"

Mickey nodded. "You're the captain of the guard. It's a game of strategy. And I'm giving you an order anyway."

Goofy nodded with some trepidation. "Alrighty then." He looked to Cid. "What does that book say about what kind of choices I can make?"

Cid tossed him an army codex. "Take your pick."

Cloud, meanwhile, nearly jumped at the realization that Yuffie was suddenly next to him, whispering in his ear, "Are we seriously sending _him_ to the rescue?"

Cloud shrugged. "If the king trusts him…"

Goofy hmmed obnoxiously, cutting Cloud off. Cid was showing him several armies and their descriptions, which were conveniently organized by allegiance. "But only these three are on Aerith's team?" Goofy asked in his usual… goofy… accent.

Cid shrugged. "That's what it says here."

"Well…"

* * *

"Oi! Is there a Squad Octavian on this channel?"

Sora looked up from the ground he was sprinting across and glanced at the vox operating Astartes. Octavian pushed his comm bead without breaking stride. "Identify yourself in the name of the Emperor!"

A brief pause punctuated the response. "Valhallan 12th and a frak load of artillery in need of firing solutions. You got some 'nid targets for us?"

Kairi nudged Sora. "What's going on?"

He shrugged.

The group came over the lip of a bloody talc dune and came down over the lip into _Fulcrum's_ crater. Another Astartes Squad was waiting for them, guns strafing over the corpses of five or so girthy quadrupeds.

"I guess those are biovores then," Riku remarked. Kairi lifted her foot at the realization that she was standing in a piece of one of them.

"Octavian of Ultramar?" They all looked up at the sound of one of the new Marine's voice. The squad in the crater below them was uniform; the captain was wearing his helmet, so they couldn't tell who had spoken. It was of interesting note to them however that this squad's armor was grey with snakes emblazoned on the shoulders rather than blue with the letter U, like Octavian.

"Damocles of Ithica?" Captain Octavian responded.

One of the other marines nodded. "Indeed we are. We are honored to be rescued by you, Octavian of Octavian, notable."

Octavian returned the comment with a nod. "As we are honored to be rescued by you, Priad of Damocles, notable." A screech on the horizon cut their greetings short, and Priad, the apparent new squad leader, tossed his ammo clip up to Octavian.

"We've got plenty! Use it up!"

Octavian loaded his weapon, spun, and fired in a graceful motion despite his size. Several Hormogaunts turned to shredded meat about a hundred meters away. The rest of Damocles tossed up their clips and reloaded themselves from the ship's stores before joining squad octavian on the lip of the dune. Priad and Octavian ended up side by side with the Pilot and his metal Gene Seed case ducking behind the dune. Sora, Riku, and Kairi ended up behind the captains, listening in and feeling useless, even rather stupid next to a perfectly oiled military machine. Kairi brushed some hair behind her ear instinctively, only to discover that it wasn't there. She remembered how her hair had burned away in the beginning of her terrible ordeal, taking most of what made her feel beautiful. She bit back some humiliated tears and reached out to squeeze Sora's hand. He squeezed back with his three remaining fingers. Riku didn't say anything. , mostly because he couldn't hear. They were a miserable bunch.

Priad split a distant skull with a well placed round and noticed Octavian at his side.

"So what's this I hear on the vox, Brother-Captain? Artillery?"

Octavian Nodded through a burst of fire. "I almost forgot." He tripped his comm. Bead. "Valhallan 12th, are you still there?"

His voice probably boomed over the radio too, judging by the Valhallan's reaction. "No need to shout, buddy. The magic box carries your voice the whole way. Feed us some auspex coordinates and we'll drop the God-Emperor's will."

Octavian pointed to the marine with the voxcaster, who nodded and dropped behind the line to send the data. Sora, Riku and Kairi only watched, idle, unneeded, feeling like frogs being crushed in a swamp full of battling elephants. The shrieks of dying Tyranids and cracks of tiny explosions only added to their feeling of impending doom.

"Maybe Phil was right," Sora mused.

Kairi squeezed his hand gently.

"Maybe we aren't heroes."

Riku socked him lightly on the arm. It wasn't playful. He was staring through the armored bodies into the slaughter.

Sora's next query was drowned by several hundred rapid crumps of the artillery over the horizon behind them.

"Look," Riku repeated with a strange voice.

The trio caught glimpses between the shifting blue armor of the Ultramarines and the shifting Grey of the Iron Snakes. They saw blood, chunks, and bloody chunks. And gold. Sora rubbed his eyes and took another peek. There was red blood, from aliens; there was white bone, from aliens; there was black bile and green puke from punctured stomachs, again belonging to aliens; and there was a flash of gold, a flash of darkness.

And then there was a column of dirt almost fifty meters high. If the artillery was the 'God-Emperor's will,' the God-Emperor was not a man to be trifled with, or perhaps even a man. The shells landed progressively farther away in a wider and wider ark, showering the talc sand high into the air, the dirt below it a little lower, and the rocks below that just far enough that the keybladers were glad for the armored bodies in front of them. The barrage continued without ceasing, blocking out Sora's attempt at screaming for Riku to confirm what he'd seen. It wasn't too loud for other voices. The Astartes could bellow over the moaning of ten thousand tortured souls. And that had been field tested in Hell.

"Captain! Target right!"

"What warp-spawned, whoresome creature is this?"

As far as Sora knew, it was a heartless hormagaunt. Another horror for the universe to bear.

Sora saw it then, unmistakably. Bullets were flying through it harmlessly, churning up the dust beneath and around it to no effect. It smiled a mouthless, soulless, Heartless grin, and locked onto the nearest Astartes with its golden eyes, sprinting and grinding its scything claws together. Sora, Riku, and Kairi pushed their way up to the captains, keyblades ready, just in time for it to carve into the marine and sunder his body like firewood. Sora swung hard and cracked the horror across its head, knocking it back.

"We can handle this, Octavian!" Riku shouted as he joined in with a swipe at its legs. "Just keep the rest off of us!"

Sora managed to stun it with another strike on the face and move fast enough to not meet the fate of the marine while Riku took out its legs. He dodged to his own safety and Sora stepped in to take the coup de grace.

Priad and Octavian spotted something ant-like around their legs. Kairi had made her way forward now and was shouting something.

"What?" Priad roared.

"There's more!" Her voice barely made it over the gunfire and artillery.

"They're Heartless!" Sora gestured at his keyblade, used to other people knowing more about it than he did.

"Of course they are! They're from the Warp! What's your point? And what the frak is that?" He gestured at the key.

The trio ran to intercept the new wave of Heartless Hormagaunts coming safely from under the explosive barrage, yelling over their shoulders, "Just watch!"

They met the wave head-on, like any other heartless battle. Claws swiped, keys blocked, they covered for each other, hitting until death. Meanwhile, Squads Octavian and Damocles kept their backs clear of the real Hormogaunts while the Valhallan shelling played the sub-sonic bass of a hymnal, praising the Emperor. More Heartless came in, like the black void of space, punctuated by chaotic, golden stars and scything claws. The trio of keys stayed close to their Marine escort throughout the battle, and the Marines stayed close to their keyblade escort. For the first time since their arrival, Sora, Riku, and Kairi were starting to feel important. After all, where would the mighty Space Marines and their Gene Seed be without them?

It wasn't long until the Heartless wave dried up. Tyranids were still on the horizon, separated by more kilometers than anyone cared to guess. The ones they could see were bigger, like tanks and short buildings, but they were slower, too. And the Astartes had all the ammo they needed now. The voxcaster- _radio_, Sora reminded himself- crackled to life again.

"Valhalla to Astartes, you have a callsign?"

The vox operator turned to his captain. Octavian shrugged and beaded back, "use callsign Octavian for us and Damocles for the Brother-Captain Priad, here."

"Roger that, Octavian, Damocles, how's that artillery?"

Everyone admired the newly formed indentation that extended into the distance; and they noted with some alarm that the tryanids were starting to reach the edge of it, where the fewest shells were landing.

Octavian chewed the inside of his mouth in thought before replying. "Back it up a bit from where you are now to the original coordinates and then drop it randomly in the spread, Valhalla. Are there any infantry with you?"

"One moment, over."

They waited. The artillery continued to fall where it was. It took about a minute to arrive from over the horizon, so that didn't surprise anyone.

"Instructions relayed, Octavian. Infantry hasn't landed yet. Commissar says we have Valhallan 597th, Cadian 8th and Tanith 1st coming down. Is that all?"

"Tell your commissar we have the Emperor's Gene Seed with us. It needs immediate evacuation, but we'll be overrun if we fall back without cover."

"Will do. Valhalla out."

As if on cue, the artillery strikes started to retreat, and just in time with the arrival of the Tyranids, which were hard do identify due to their being savagely torn apart by the concussive blasts. Only the Heartless were getting through the wall of fire, still the regular Hormagaunt varieties. Gathering into defensive semi-cirles, the Astartes let Sora and friends work their blades. It was a good deal all around.

"Airborne incoming, flank, low."

And the radio operator had only made it sound better. Sora knocked his last victim's scythes aside and sundered its face. It cracked, twitched, and then slumped to the ground, the last of the wave for as far as he could see. One of squad Octavian was digging through the remains of the fallen soldier, doing what Sora couldn't tell.

A heart escaped into the air, dancing and twirling around, up, up, up, drawing Sora's eyes with it like a milestone in his life until it finally reached its destination somewhere among the stars. Sora wondered briefly where Destiny Islands was relative to them. How could one move from a world in a book or a game to reality? By going Betwixt and Between?

It made his head hurt, so he wiped some blood off of his nose and turned to look at the aircraft coming from the allied horizon. Low was an understatement. It was another shuttle, kicking up rocks in the vacuum it left behind as it skimmed along Macragge's talc skin. In less than a minute it stopped next to them and dropped their rescue. Sora's hope dropped away completely. Four men came out of the shuttle, toting military equipment.

"Octavian? Damocles?" One of the men gestured over his shoulder into the craft. "'ere's for you. We're your replacement."

Sora beamed again. Kairi was at his side in an instant. "We're getting on the shuttle? We're leaving?"

The four men, not Marines, not clad in any incredible armor or amazing by any standard, scowled idly at the keybearers as they passed and began digging a foxhole and unraveling grey cloth to camouflage themselves. The Marines were already piling into the craft, but Sora, Kairi, and Riku, almost about to board themselves, suddenly stopped as if thinking the same thought at once. They turned, slowly, reluctantly, to face their morals and watch the four men who would surely not last without their help. Sora looked to his friends for their thoughts, and it was silently agreed, everyone has to die sometime. They piled on without looking back, for fear that their former selves would see them leave.

The pilot at the front of the craft turned around and yelled at them all, somehow getting his words past the cigar in his mouth. "Ya Frakkers listen good here, right? I ain't getting part a this crap today, so we're flyin' this down low where ain't frakkin' AA gonna shit us outta the sky. Hang on tight."

Sora frowned. He didn't remember cid having such a large scar on his face or speaking as crassly around him before. The ramp closed on the craft and it lifted slightly. Sora didn't like the future so far. He could only hope, like everyone he shared the galaxy with, that it would get better.


End file.
